Fourth time’s the charm? How Baker Mayfield, Bucs found unlikely success in marriage

Baker Mayfield briefly dropped back before tucking the ball and barreling forward.

He zigged to the right and zagged to the left, resisting the Detroit Lions’ tackles just long enough to fall into the end zone.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took a 20-16 lead they would not relinquish with 34 seconds to play, avenging their divisional-round playoff loss from eight months earlier as they improved to 2-0.

The series of events that had led to Tampa Bay advancing in the playoffs last season, and outlasting a good Lions team early in this one, were unexpected.

First, there was Mayfield’s success on the 11-yard quarterback draw. Buccaneers quarterbacks coach Thad Lewis ribbed Mayfield about the pro of what he viewed as a slimmer, more athletic frame than last year.

“I said, ‘Big Bake last year wouldn’t have been able to score on that,’” Lewis told Yahoo Sports. “But Slim Bake could.’”

Then, there was the passing game that had demanded enough respect from the Lions’ defense to set up the draw.

The Lions prepared for Mayfield fresh off a season opener in which he had thrown for 289 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions.

Even the Buccaneers, who take on the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday Night Football, didn’t see this coming 13 months ago, when late into training camp 2023 Mayfield was the league’s last eventual starter still in a quarterback battle with the season nearing.

The 2018 first overall draft pick’s career resurgence fascinates teams around the league as they try to understand the latest data point of a famously inexact science. Teams spend ample hours scouting top players, their analyses of quarterbacks arguably the most difficult as they try to project not only physical traits but also the processing and decision-making that influence quarterbacks more than any other position.

When top draft picks flame out, teams are left reeling from the missed dart. When those same players then succeed elsewhere, a whole new level of questions arise.

As…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-02 23:31:52

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